1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multimedia message processing method in a mobile communication terminal, and more particularly, to a mobile communication terminal and multimedia message processing method thereof.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Typically, a multimedia messaging service (hereinafter abbreviated as “MMS”) is a radio mail system type wireless data communication method provided by 3GPP (third generation partnership project) to support person-to-person multimedia message transfer in the third generation wireless Internet environment. The MMS, which evolved from a limited service directed towards letter or voice messages such as a short message service, is a service capable of handling multimedia data such as images, graphics, moving pictures, etc.
According to the 3GPP, the MMS performs the functions of transmitting a multimedia message (hereinafter abbreviated as “MM”) regardless of the network connection of a receiving side to provide an extended multimedia service to a wire/wireless network and temporarily storing and forwarding the transmitted multimedia message. Hence, to transmit the MM, a transmitting terminal preferentially transmits the message to an MMS server. The transmitting terminal or MMS server may then provide a receiving terminal with a valid message period enabling the transmitted multimedia message not to be downloaded to the receiving terminal.
In the transmission and reception of the above described multimedia message, various states can be forwarded to the transmitting terminal in response to the demand for a transmission state message of the transmitting terminal. In this case, the various states include whether the MM is successfully transmitted, whether the MM is rejected by a user of the receiving terminal, whether the user of the receiving terminal can receive a notification of the arrival of the MM within a mail box and then download the MM, whether the user of the receiving terminal can recognize the MM, etc.
Referring to FIG. 1, an exemplary block diagram for explaining a multimedia service concept according to a related art is illustrated. For example, in order for a user of a transmitting terminal I to transmit a multimedia message to a receiving terminal 3, additional information (phone number of the transmitting terminal, phone number of the receiving terminal, etc.) is included in the multimedia message. The multimedia message including the additional information is then transmitted to a MMS 2.
The MMS 2, having received the multimedia message and additional information, stores the corresponding information and then transmits a short message to the receiving terminal 3 to inform of the arrival of the multimedia message. The receiving terminal 3 may then inform a user of the short message. The informed user of the receiving terminal 3 then accesses the MMS 2 to check out the multimedia message. If the multimedia check is executed by the receiving terminal 3, the MMS 2 provides notice of this fact to the transmitting terminal 1 using a short message.
FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary diagram of a multimedia message transmission confirmation screen of a mobile communication terminal according to the prior art. For example, in the case of transmitting a multimedia message, a mobile communication terminal according to a related art requests from an MMS server a transmission state message relating to the transmitted message and then outputs the transmission state message received from the MMS server on a display panel.
Similarly, in the case that the related art mobile communication terminal transmits the multimedia message, a simple transmission notification message and a phone number of a receiving terminal, as shown in FIG. 2, are displayed. Thus, in the case of transmitting a plurality of multimedia messages to a specific terminal in order, the terminal is unable to know which transmission confirmation message displayed on the display panel corresponds to which one of a plurality of the previously transmitted messages.
Accordingly, when attempting to retransmit a message that failed in transmission from among the plurality of the previously transmitted messages, it may be impossible to identify the message to be retransmitted due to the fact that the terminal is unable to know which transmission confirmation message displayed on the display panel corresponds to which one of a plurality of the previously transmitted messages.